It's not often a musher sitting out The Last Great Race gets this much attention.

But a four-time champion accords the attention-- especially when it's Dallas Seavey. And he's doing it in protest.

Seavey has had a tough year. A positive drug test in four of his dogs following the 2017 Iditarod revealed tramadol, a pain reliever. He denied the charge. Ultimately, race officials opened the door for him to race in 2018 but he declined in protest.

Instead of competing in the race he and his family have become synonymous with, he took his team to Norway.

KTVA Sports spoke with Seavey from Norway as he now prepares for the Finnmarkslopet. As 68 mushers will be on the Southern route steaming towards Nome, Seavey and his dogs will be a world away.